“Cisco is truly the leader in the industry when it comes to working with their partners on better their marketing practices, I wish more vendors would follow suit.”
— Chad Bockert, Vice President of Marketing, World Wide Technology
Earlier this year, LinkedIn released results from a survey of over 5,000 technology purchasers and influencers confirming what channel chiefs have been telling Channel Marketing Journal all along: Channel marketing has to be constant — and easy for partners.
The crux of the 2019 report is that modern tech buyers are super diligent about getting the information they need to make informed decisions and expect the discovery process to be agile and efficient. With most of the buyer’s journey happening online, it’s absolutely vital that vendors help partners transform and optimize their digital marketing practices.
Vendors are seeing the light. Cisco’s expansion of Marketing Velocity announced last week is a great example. To simplify partner access to Cisco marketing and sales resources and support, the company has brought all channel marketing and enablement services under one umbrella — including partner education, funding, co-marketing programs, and digital marketing.
In a nod to the rising importance of vendor-partner collaboration, the expansion includes the launch of Cisco Marketing Velocity Activate — a program focused on motivating deeper partner engagement with the customer journey and growing sales.
Marketing Velocity Activate uses data and insights to give partners opportunities to leverage Cisco’s marketing engines. We’re excited about the program’s potential and will keep close tabs on progress as it’s deployed, scaled and put to the test by partners.
Partner response has been great. Says Chad Bockert, Vice President of Marketing at World Wide Technology, “WWT (World Wide Technology) has had a longstanding partnership with Cisco where we have been transforming our marketing practices together. Through leveraging Cisco Marketing Velocity Activate, we have already seen a $10M pipeline and $2M in bookings in only ten weeks.”
As tech buyers continue to shift their focus online, Channel Marketing Journal expects to see more vendors incorporate digital marketing enablement into their channel empowerment strategies. And we applaud Cisco Vice President of Global Partner Marketing, Boon Lai, and team for taking through-partner digital transformation to the next level by actively investing in partners’ marketing expertise and success in a cohesive, collaborative way.
“This is more than just bringing all of the partner marketing resources under one brand,” says Lai. “It’s ultimately about integrating and up-leveling our partner’s marketing practices with an end to end solution to attract new customers, deliver more sales and drive profits.”
What is your take on the digital marketing enablement future? Contact us to share your insight.
